Chips, hardware drag techs lower

MikeTarsala

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Tech stocks continued with a four-day rally Thursday as institutional buyers took a shine to the market, which battled back economic reports that showed rising unemployment and slower retail sales.

Government reports suggest that first-time jobless claims were 392,000, the highest level since March 1996. March retail sales shed 0.2 percent, or more than expected. Food costs last month were the highest in a year, although energy costs dropped.

Still, the Nasdaq Composite
$COMPQ
rose 62.47 points, or 3.3 percent, to 1,961.42, while the large-cap Nasdaq 100 Index
$NDX
moved up 4.1 percent. The S&P 500 Index
SPX, -1.42%
one of the best reflections of total market activity, gained 1.5 percent.

Networking stocks led the afternoon market advance, as shares of Juniper Networks and JDS Uniphase each surged more than 11 percent as two of the most actively traded issues. Redback Networks
RBAK
jumped 12 percent after posting late Wednesday a loss of 13 cents a share, two cents less than the Wall Street estimate.

Meanwhile, Nortel Networks
NT
was among the most actively traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, as the stock gained 15 percent, even though CS First Boston cut the company's 2002 revenue forecasts because of reduced customer spending.

Chip shares, responsible for much of Tuesday's and Wednesday's gains, continued to impress. The 16-stock Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 6 percent, as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola and nearly every other well-known chip stock advanced.

Even Yahoo
YHOO
shares surged 7 percent following 12-percent job cuts announced Wednesday. The company's reported penny-a-share quarterly profit didn't inspire investors. Yahoo said it expects earnings in a range from 2 to 6 cents a share for the year on revenue of $700 million to $775 million.

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